What Your Team Is Thankful For: San Jose Sharks
We’ve now made it past the holiday season but there is still plenty to be thankful for. Like the last few years, PHR will take a look at what teams are thankful for but this year comes with a bit of a change. Normally teams would have an idea of where their season was heading, coming up on the one-quarter mark with mountains of statistics to analyze. Instead, in this unprecedented year, things are just getting underway. We’ll still take a look at what each group is excited about and what they could hope for with the calendar having now flipped to 2021.
What are the Sharks most thankful for?
Last season, San Jose finished dead last in the Pacific Division but while most teams in that situation could at least take solace in knowing that such a performance would yield a high draft pick, that wasn’t the case as Ottawa held their first-round pick from the Erik Karlsson trade, using it on Tim Stutzle. This season, they’re not off to the best of starts either (currently sitting in last place in the West Division) but they at least have their first-round selection this time. After underachieving last year and getting off to a sluggish start this season, there isn’t much to be thankful for in terms of on-ice success but at least they have their top pick in their pocket this time around.
Who are the Sharks most thankful for?
While many of San Jose’s players have underachieved lately, that can’t be said for Tomas Hertl. After leading all of their forwards in scoring in 2018-19, he produced at a rate that would have been good enough for the team lead had it not been for a knee injury last season. He has returned without any lingering issues and currently leads the Sharks in scoring in the early going this year. After starting his career on the wing, Hertl has also successfully transitioned to a full-time center role, giving them a second homegrown fit down the middle with Logan Couture. Hertl still has this year and next left on what has become a below-market contract with a $5.625MM AAV and will likely be looking for a deal around Couture’s price tag ($8MM) in 2022.
What would the Sharks be even more thankful for?
Karlsson providing a better return for their investment, both in terms of price paid to get him and his contract. The pick used on Stutzle and Joshua Norris have given Ottawa two potential franchise cornerstones (not to mention the other players they parted with including Chris Tierney and Dylan DeMelo) while Karlsson hasn’t come close to living up to expectations. His point-per-game average has dipped each year since 2015-16 which is concerning for an offense-first defenseman and he has managed just nine goals in a San Jose uniform. With a record-setting $11.5MM AAV through 2026-27, the Sharks need a whole lot more from Karlsson than they’ve received so far.
What should be on the Sharks’ wish list?
Two areas come to mind with one being a lot more attainable than the other. The realistic one is trying to add scoring help; the Sharks are averaging just 2.75 goals per game and no one has more than three with Brent Burns being the only defender to get on the board (this despite having the priciest back end in the league). They are pegged to finish more than $4MM under the cap, per CapFriendly which is quite important in this environment where so many teams are capped out. If they can hang around the playoff race, they could put themselves in a spot to add.
The less likely one is getting a reliable goaltender. The Sharks added Devan Dubnyk in the hopes that a change of scenery could spark him after a tough showing with Minnesota last year while also giving Martin Jones a bit of a reprieve to help him improve. Neither have happened. Jones has been pulled twice already and is narrowly allowing less than four goals per game while Dubnyk has just a .902 SV%. However, while getting a steadier option would certainly help, given the difficulty in acquiring any sort of goaltending help this season, it’s unlikely they’ll be able to adequately address this area.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Postponed Vegas Golden Knights Games Rescheduled
Feb 1: The league has announced schedule changes following the three postponements. The following has been rescheduled:
- Game #122, St. Louis at Vegas, originally scheduled for Jan. 28, is now scheduled for Monday, March 22 at 10 p.m. ET
- Game #149, Vegas at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb. 1, is now scheduled for Saturday, Feb. 13 at 4 p.m. ET
- Game #162, Vegas at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb. 3, is now scheduled for Thursday, Feb. 25 at 10:30 p.m. ET
- Game #241, Anaheim at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb.13, is now scheduled for Tuesday, April 6 at 10:30 p.m. ET
- Game #325, Vegas at Anaheim, originally scheduled for Feb. 26, is now scheduled for Friday, April 23 at 10 p.m. ET
- Game #326, St. Louis at San Jose, originally scheduled for Feb. 26, is now scheduled for Monday, March 8 at 10:30 p.m. ET
Jan 29: The NHL has postponed two more Vegas Golden Knights games, despite no other players from the team appearing on the COVID Protocol Related Absences list. Games against the San Jose Sharks scheduled for Monday and Wednesday have both been postponed and will be played later in the schedule.
In the release, the league specifies that three members of the Golden Knights coaching staff and one player (presumably Alex Pietrangelo, who is on the CPRA list) are isolating currently. The teams training facilities will remain closed until further notice.
The Golden Knights are currently scheduled to welcome in the Los Angeles Kings next on February 5, though it is not clear if the situation will have resolved by then. The league has not announced when the two games against the Sharks will be played, but that is now three postponed matches the Golden Knights must fit somewhere into their remaining schedule.
Perhaps the team’s four-day break in April, which follows a series against the Sharks will be the easiest place to fit the games in, though these postponements mean there will be very little rest for Vegas down the stretch.
Rudolfs Balcers Sent To AHL On Conditioning Stint
- Sharks winger Rudolfs Balcers has been cleared to play and will head to the minors for a conditioning stint, reports CapFriendly (Twitter links). The 23-year-old was claimed off waivers back on January 12th and received a non-roster designation the next day that lasted through today. Balcers will be able to skate with AHL San Jose for up to two weeks before he must be recalled.
Sharks Set To Return To San Jose In February
The San Jose Sharks will soon be back home at the SAP Center. Due to a ban on contact sports in Santa Clara County, the Sharks held training camp in Glendale, Arizona. The team has since played on the road and will be the “home” team in Glendale for games against the Vegas Golden Knights on February 1st and 3rd. However, the Sharks have announced that with the ban lifted back in San Jose, they have begun planning and implementing health and safety measures in preparation for a return home. The Sharks plan to make their true home debut on February 13 against the Anaheim Ducks.
The plan is for all future Sharks (and AHL Barracuda) home games beyond the upcoming Glendale series to take place in San Jose. However, the team will be on a short leash. Curtis Pashelka of The San Jose Mercury News writes that Santa Clara County has already vowed that “Any professional athletics organization that violates the order shall be immediately and automatically suspended from engaging in athletic activities.” The Sharks must abide by the NHL’s COVID Protocol anyhow, but rather than only face a league fine and players and/or coaches out of commission, the team may actually lose their home again if they do not follow local guidelines as well.
For now, the team is focused on their upcoming “home” games in Glendale. The Sharks’ players may arguably be more excited for these games than they are for their return to San Jose. Included in the team’s release today was that they have received permission to have limited attendance during the two-game series. Given the much stricter COVID climate in California, these may be the only games that the Sharks play in front of fans all year. Of course, Pashelka notes that only 2,500 tickets are expected to be sold for each game and sales are limited to Arizona citizens only, but there are sure to be some local Sharks fans in attendance.
San Jose Sharks Acquire Christian Jaros
The San Jose Sharks completed two trades today, ending with the acquisition of defenseman Christian Jaros from the Ottawa Senators. First, the Sharks sent Trevor Carrick to the Anaheim Ducks in exchange for minor league forward Jack Kopacka, who they then flipped along with a 2022 seventh-round selection to the Senators for Jaros. GM Doug Wilson released a short statement on his newest defenseman:
Christian is a big right-shot defenseman who plays a physical game. He is a young player with 76 games of NHL experience so far and has the ability to grow his game.
This is a rare three-way trade in the NHL, though the Sharks can likely claim that they received the best player in the deal, given Jaros’ previous NHL experience. The 24-year-old defenseman has played in 76 games for the Senators over the last three seasons, including 61 in 2018-19. He was pushed down the depth chart by some of Ottawa’s more veteran additions since then and cleared waivers earlier this month. Yes, the Sharks could have acquired Jaros at that point for nothing but a waiver claim, but clearing actually likely improved Jaros’ trade value. He can now be moved up and down freely between the NHL, taxi squad, and AHL until he plays in 10 NHL games or spends 30 days on the NHL roster.
That flexibility is valuable for a team like the Sharks who just put Jacob Middleton on waivers today, potentially losing him to a claim should someone be interested in the left-shot defenseman. Jaros will become a useful depth piece that could even push for some NHL playing time if younger players like Mario Ferraro or Nikolai Knyzhov falter (though that certainly doesn’t seem likely for the former at this point).
In Carrick, the Ducks are receiving a minor league star, who has routinely put up huge offensive seasons from the back end. The 26-year-old has only ever played seven games at the NHL level though and likely is an addition more for the San Diego Gulls than anything. It just so happens that Sam Carrick, his older brother, is the captain of the Gulls.
Kopacka, the youngest player involved in the deals, spent most of the 2019-20 season with the Gulls, though he also did have a short stint with the Tulsa Oilers of the ECHL. A fourth-round pick from 2016, he has yet to play in the NHL or really break out in the minor leagues. The Senators of course are also getting a seventh-round pick, a nice little sweetener for a player that seemed unlikely to see the ice with them this season. Even beyond the NHL roster, the Senators have some younger prospects that will need playing time before long, and moving Jaros has cleared the way.
Yannick Weber, Jacob Middleton Placed On Waivers
The Pittsburgh Penguins have signed Yannick Weber to a one-year, two-way contract worth $750K at the NHL level, placing him on waivers immediately in order for him to report directly to the taxi squad or minor leagues. Pittsburgh has been dealing with several injuries on the back end, while Weber had not earned a contract from his professional tryout with the Nashville Predators. Jacob Middleton of the San Jose Sharks has also been placed on waivers, according to Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic.
The Penguins have seen nearly every left-shot defenseman on their depth chart injured through the first part of the season, including Brian Dumoulin who left last night’s game and did not appear at practice today. John Marino, who has shown the ability to play both sides in his young career, was also missing at practice, necessitating a move like the signing of Weber, even if he’s not an ideal replacement.
Now 32, Weber comes with 497 regular season NHL games under his belt but hasn’t averaged more than 14:01 a night since the 2015-16 season. In Nashville, where he has spent the last four seasons, he was relegated to spot duty on the bottom pairing, sheltered against weaker opponents. Experience at the highest level is one thing, but it’s hard to imagine him being a true fix for the problems in Pittsburgh.
Middleton meanwhile has been leapfrogged by several other defensemen in San Jose, most notably 22-year-old Nikolai Knyzhov who has shown pretty well in the first part of the season. The 25-year-old Middleton will likely be assigned to the taxi squad if he clears, which seems likely given he has just 14 games of NHL experience under his belt. Perhaps a needy team like Pittsburgh would take a chance, but there’s certainly no guarantee that he can even be a full-time player at the highest level.
Sharks To Play Two Home Games In Arizona
As a result of the ban on contact sports in Santa Clara County, the Sharks held their training camp in Arizona and were given an eight-game road trip to start the season in the hopes that there would be more clarity on whether or not they’d be able to return home by then. That isn’t the case as the team announced that they will host their first two ‘home’ games against Vegas in Glendale where the Coyotes play. Team president Jonathan Beecher released the following statement about their hopes to return to San Jose soon:
We feel that we have put significant precautions in place, including daily COVID-19 testing of the athletes and support staff, to allow for us to safely return to play games at SAP Center, while not exposing the community to any additional health risk. In our discussions with County officials over the past several months, we have shared our detailed return-to-play plans and are hopeful that we can find practical solutions to this difficult situation very soon.
Following this two-game set, the Sharks are back on the road for four more games with their next home games coming February 13th and 15th. Accordingly, the team hasn’t made a decision yet on their plans for those contests. The Coyotes also have home games those days so if San Jose is unable to return home by then, there will likely be some changes to their schedule coming over the next couple of weeks.
Minor Transactions: 01/18/21
The NHL season is underway and at the top level teams are keeping busy merely by swapping players between the active roster and taxi squad. However, with AHL training camps starting up, there has also been a flurry of activity from the lower levels. There also continue to be players making the move overseas, by both signing and loan. Keep up with all of the action right here:
- In addition to confirming the previously reported signings of Ryan Fitzgerald, Tanner MacMaster, and Zane McIntyre, the AHL’s Lehigh Valley Phantoms have added another netminder, announcing the signing of Eamon McAdam. McAdam, 26, is a Pennsylvania native and a Penn State product, so he should feel right at home with the Philadelphia Flyers’ affiliate. McAdam had been playing with the ECHL’s Jacksonville Icemen to begin the season.
- The Rochester Americans announced that they have inked defenseman Dylan Blujus to a one-year AHL contract. The former Tampa Bay Lightning prospect is a solid stay-at-home defender who has a +24 rating in 274 AHL games over six pro seasons.
- The San Jose Barracuda have recalled a number of players from the ECHL’s Allen Americans for the start of training camp, including Sharks prospect Jacob McGrew. McGrew got an early start to his first pro season down in the ECHL after missing all but six games of his final WHL campaign due to injury. The Sharks already trusted McGrew’s ability enough to give him an entry-level contract and after a strong scoring start in Allen, they could let him fight for a top-six role with the Barracuda.
- After five seasons in the AHL, former Edmonton Oilers prospect Joey LaLeggia is headed overseas. The 28-year-old has signed with he SHL’s Rogle BK for the remainder of the season, the team announced. LaLeggia, who was a standout on defense in the NCAA with the University of Denver, had shifted to forward in the pros. It remains to be seen how the versatile veteran will be used in Sweden.
- Another name making the move to Europe is 2021 NHL Draft prospect Brett Harrison. The potential first-round pick this summer has yet to play this season and the OHL’s Oshawa Generals have thus agreed to loan him to KOOVEE of the Finnish minor league Metsis, his new club announced. The two-way center will look to improve his draft stock by playing against pros, possibly for the rest of the year.
Toronto’s Aaron Dell, Jason Spezza Among Those On Waivers
Jan 18: Spezza, Biega, Kellman, and Ritchie have all cleared waivers. Dell was claimed by the New Jersey Devils.
Jan 17: The Toronto Maple Leafs responded after losing rookie forward Nicholas Robertson to injury Saturday by placing a couple of their players on waivers Sunday. Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston reports that third-string goaltender Aaron Dell and veteran forward Jason Spezza are among those on waivers. Detroit Red Wings’ Alex Biega and San Jose Sharks’ Joel Kellman also made the list. The Calgary Flames also placed forward Brett Ritchie on waivers after signing him to a one-year deal earlier today.
Toronto’s roster moves all comes back to Saturday night’s injury of rookie forward Nick Robertson, who is expected to miss time. Because of the lack of cap space to recall a replacement for Robertson (other than Travis Boyd), the team was forced to make some roster moves, including risking losing Aaron Dell, who the team has been holding on to as a third-string goalie, waiting for the goalie market needs die down to pass him through waivers. There was talk that Toronto might be able to use the new emergency recall rule, but The Athletic’s James Mirtle shot that down, reporting that rule can only be used in COVID-19 cases. Unfortunately for Toronto, the team will likely lose the former San Jose Sharks’ netminder. Dell, who struggled behind San Jose’s weak defense last season, was brought in to serve as a third option in case either Frederik Andersen or Jack Campbell struggle or are injured during the season. He will almost assuredly be claimed with many experts suggesting that he will be claimed by either the Edmonton Oilers or New Jersey Devils.
Spezza is another interesting candidate. Teams might be interested in bringing in the veteran forward, but Johnston reports that Spezza isn’t interested in playing for any other team other than Toronto as he wants to remain close to his family. The Athletic’s Jonas Siegel reports that the 37-year-old was ready to retire in the offseason had the Leafs not brought him back. He has played in all three of the Maple Leafs games so far this season. NOTE: Spezza’s agent Rick Curran told Johnston that Spezza will retire if he is claimed by any other NHL team.
Biega is no stranger to waivers, but the 32-year-old has served as a sixth/seventh defenseman for years. He played in 49 games with the Red Wings last year and would make a good candidate for the taxi squad as well. He has not appeared in either of the Red Wings two games this year. Kellman appeared in the Sharks’ first game of the season, but was a healthy scratch Saturday and now looks headed for the taxi squad as well. The 26-year-old scored seven points in 31 games for the Sharks last season.
Taxi Squad Shuffle: 01/17/21
It appears as though there will be daily movement this season between the active roster and taxi squad, and although some major names may be highlighted in separate articles, this is where you’ll find the majority of shuffle news each day.
- With a few players hitting the COVID protocol related absence list Saturday, the Winnipeg Jets announced they have added two AHL players to the taxi squad, including forward C.J. Suess and defenseman Nelson Nogier. Suess appeared in one game for the Jets last season, while Nogier has appeared in 11 NHL contests for Winnipeg, most of which came back in 2016-17. The team also has sent Ville Heinola to the taxi squad, while the Jets have recalled Logan Stanley.
- The San Jose Sharks moved around a few players late Saturday. The team recalled defensemen Nicolas Meloche and Nikolai Knyzhov from the taxi squad, while sending forwards Fredrik Handemark and Jeffrey Viel to the taxi squad. The team also sent forward Maxim Letunov to the San Jose Barracuda of the AHL.
- The Tampa Bay Lightning sent defenseman Luke Schenn to the taxi squad late Saturday. The veteran was recalled Friday and appeared in Friday’s game.
- The Montreal Canadiens announced that prized rookie defenseman Alexander Romanov has been sent to the taxi squad, most likely for cap purposes. The blueliner can still travel and practice with the team and he is expected to join the team once again on Monday in Edmonton. Romanov has already played in the team’s first two games this season and has looked impressive.
- The St. Louis Blues placed defenseman Robert Bortuzzo on injured reserve due to an upper-body injury and have recalled Niko Mikkola from the taxi squad to take his place, according to NHL.com’s Lou Korac. The 24-year-old blueliner appeared in five games for the Blues last season. St. Louis also recalled forward Jake Neighbours and defenseman Jake Walman from the AHL and assigned them to the taxi squad.
- After being recalled Saturday, the Calgary Flames announced they have assigned forward Derek Ryan and defenseman Oliver Kylington to the taxi squad following their game Saturday. Ryan has appeared in both games for the Flames so far this year.
- The Nashville Predators announced they have assigned forward Mathieu Olivier to the taxi squad. Olivier made his season debut Saturday, playing 11:58 of ice time, while posting six hits and two blocked shots.
- The Colorado Avalanche moved defenseman Bowen Byram to the taxi squad, according to Mike Chambers of the Denver Post. Byram, the fourth overall pick in the 2019 draft, hasn’t appeared in a game yet for the Avalanche. Head coach Jared Bednar said that he has a plan for when Byram will make his debut, but said he isn’t sharing that information right now.
- The Los Angeles Kings announced they have assigned defenseman Mark Alt from the taxi squad to the Ontario Reign of the AHL. The 29-year-old played one game for the Kings during their season opener, but likely will spend most of his time between the AHL and the taxi squad. The veteran has only appeared in 19 total NHL games, spending most of his career in the AHL.
- The Boston Bruins have assigned forward Trent Frederic to their taxi squad. The 22-year-old has appeared in both of the Bruins games so far this year, but hasn’t produced a point.
- The Toronto Maple Leafs have recalled forward Pierre Engvall from their AHL affiliate, the Toronto Marlies, and moved him to their taxi squad, according to CapFriendly. The 24-year-old hasn’t made an appearance yet for Toronto. He played in 48 games for the Maple Leafs last year, scoring eight goals and 15 points.